Attachment for sewing machine



United States Patent Inventor William T. Gensheimer Valley Stream, New York Appl. No. 727,198

Filed May 7, 1968 Patented Aug. 25, 1970 Assignee W. T. Gensheimer Inc.

New York, New York a corporation of New York ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINE 6 Claims, 10 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 112/142, 112/143,112/152, 270/93 Int. Cl D051) 35/02, D05b 35/10 Field of Search 1 12/ l 52,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 458,428 8/1891 Priester 112/142 2,492,931 12/1949 Enos 1 12/143 Primary Ex/zminerl-l. Hampton Hunter Attorney-Amster and Rothstein ABSTRACT: A sewing machine attachment formed by two elongated parts mounted in a clearance position with respect to each other so as to define a guide channel for an elastic strip and fabric fed to a sewing machine and wherein the cooperating body parts have a helical twist and, as a consequence, cause the elastic and fabric to similarly undergo a helical twist which results in the elastic being encapsulated within a hem formed along an edge of the fabric.

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FIG. 2

ATTORNEYS ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINE The present invention relates generally to sewing machine attachments and more particularly to an improved sewing machine attachment for positioning or encapsulating an elongated material, such as elastic, within a hem formed along an edge of a fabric.

The sewing machine attachments currently available for placing an elongated binding or elastic or similar shaped material within a hem construction all generally having a mode of operation which can be characterized by a folding of the fabric about the elongated material. These various attachments achieve their purpose to various degrees of satisfaction but invariably none of these attachments is particularly successful in enveloping or encapsulating the elongated material snugly or firmly within the folds of the hem. Generally, there is usually some looseness between one or both of the edges of the elongated material and the adjacent fold of the hem construction.

Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved sewing machine attachment overcoming the foregoing and other disadvantages of the prior art. Specifieally, it is an object to provide an improved sewing machine attachment which utilizes a distinctively different mode of operation and consequently is effective in encapsulating the elongated material firmly within the interior of the hem. The attachment hereof is particularly advantageous for use with elastic since this material is invariably stretched during sewing and thereafter relaxes and any looseness in the hem is manifested as unsightly wrinkles and creases in the fabric.

A sewing machine attachment demonstrating objects and advantages of the present invention includes a pair of cooperating elongated body members or parts mounted in a clearance position so as to define a guide channel to the sewing machine. The confronting opposite edges of these two body parts bound elongated side openings along the guide channel through which the fabric, in a superposed position upon the elastic, extend during movement through the attachment. Since the cooperating body parts are formed with a helical twist, the previously-noted elongated openings are transposed one hundred eighty degrees and the fabric, which extends through the openings, naturally also partakes of this same transposition and in the process is thus firmly folded about each of the edges of the elastic. Unlike prior art attachments in which the fabric is folded about the elastic while the elastic is stationary in the folding direction, in the functioning of the attachment hereof both the fabric and elastic (or elongated material, as the case may be) have movement in a direction of folding. Specifically, the edge of the elastic is in contact with the fabric during this folding movement such that the fold in the fabric is created along such line of contact assuring that there is little or no looseness between the fabric fold and the adjacent elastic edge.

The above brief description, as well as further objects, features and advantages of the present invention, will be more fully appreciated by reference to the following detailed description of a presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative embodiment in accordance with the present invention, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a folding attachment of the present invention utilized specifically for an elastic strip;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view illustrating further structural details of the attachment;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the attachment, with portions broken away, to better illustrate internal structural features thereof;

FIGS. 4-9 illustrate the relative conditions of the elastic and of the fabric at various progressive positions of movement thereof along the attachment, namely to wit:

FIG. 4 illustrates the condition of the fabric relative to the elastic as the fabric enters the attachment in a superposed position on the elastic;

FIG. Sis a sectional view taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 4;

LII

FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 4 but illustrates the relative conditions of the fabric and elastic after the same have undergone a partial helical twist;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 6:

FIG. 8 is similar to FIGS. 4 and 6 but illustrate the fabric and the elastic after completion of the helical twist which results in the fully encapsulated condition of the elastic within a hem formed along an edge of the fabric;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view,taken on line 9-9 of FIG. 8, illustrating further details of this encapsulated condition of the elastic; and

FIG. 10 is a partial perspective view of the finished edge of the fabric.

Reference is now made to the drawings wherein there is shown a sewing machine attachment, generally designated 10, mounted in the feed path of a reciprocating double needle 12 of a sewing machine 14. Although the attachment 10 is useful with a wide range of elongated strip materials which are to be placed within hem or similar constructions, it is described for purposes of the present application in connection with an elongated strip of elastic l6 firmly located or encapsulated within a hem construction 18 formed along an edge of a fabric 20, all as best illustrated in FIG. 10. As generally understood, the encapsulated elastic 16 is secured in place within the hem 18 by the stitches 22 and 24 deposited by the double sewing needles 12 as the work 16, is fed past the needles 12 by the feed dogs (not shown) of the sewing machine 14. The present invention resides in the simplified construction and mode of operation of the attachment 10 which results in the elastic 16 (or other elongated strip material, as the case may be) being firmly enveloped or encapsulated within the hem 18. This firmness is manifested by the outer hem edge 18a being tightly folded about the adjacent elastic edge 16a.

In the exemplary embodiment illustrated herein, the sewing machine 14 includes a work table 26 on the front edge 26a of which is a bracket 28 formed with bifurcated ears 28a mounting a horizontally oriented slide bar 28b. Bar 2812, in turn, mounts a block 30 which slidably accommodates a cylindrical leg 32 having at its upper free end a bifurcated fixture 34 mounting a guide roller 36 for the elastic 16. Extending laterally of one fixture leg 34a is a cylindrical support 38 on which are rotatably mounted a pair of L-shaped attachment supports 40 and 42. The attachment supports 40, 42 are each appropriately connected at their free ends, as at 44 and 46, to the two portions which form the body of the attachment 10. As will now be explained in detail, these two body portions of the attachment 10 are disposed in a clearance position with respect to each other so as to define a guide channel G therebetween along the length of the attachment 10 through which the elastic l6 and fabric 20 are fed to the sewing machine 14; the extent or height of the guide channel G is determined by the adjusted positions of the L-shaped attachment supports 40, 42 relative to each other which in turn determine the relative clearance positions of the body portions attached to these supports.

As best shown in FIGS. 1-3, attachment 10 has a generally elongated shape formed by the two body parts 10a and 10b arranged, as already noted, in a clearance position with respect to each other so as to define therebetween the guide channel G. The width of the body parts 10a, 10b is equal to that of the elastic 16. The body parts 10a, 1012 at the portions thereof attached at 44, 46 to the supports 40, 42 bound an entrance opening into the guide channel G. Just beyond the opening 10, each of the cooperating body parts 10a, 10b are then formed with a one hundred eighty degree helical twist, as at I-IT, so that what was the upper body part, namely 10a, is reversed in position and after the helical twist HT becomes the bottom body part. Also, the confronting edges along opposite sides of the body parts 10a, 10b, at a point just beyond the entrance opening 10c bound a first elongated side opening 10d, to the left as viewed in FIG. 3 and a second elongated side opening 102, to the right as viewed in FIG. 3, and, after the helical twist HT, the side opening 10e is to the left and opening 10d is to the right. As best shown in FIG. 3, the body part 10a terminates in a triangular section 10f, the edge 10g of which forms a continuation of one edge bounding the elongated opening 102. As clearly shown in FIG. 3, however, opening 10e along the edge 10g angles across the width of the attachment l and ultimately, as at the juncture h, merges with the other side opening 10d. The significance of this will soon be apparent.

Since the cooperating parts 10a, 10b of the attachment 10 undergo a one hundred eighty degree helical turn or twist, the elastic 16 and fabric 20 fed through the attachment 10 must also undergo this helical turn and thus exit from the attachment 10 in a condition, as previously noted, in which the elastic 16 is firmly encapsulated within the hem 18 formed along the edge 18a of the fabric 20. The manner in which this is achieved can best be understood by progressive examination of FIGS. 49.

As shown in FIG. 4, the strip of elastic I6 is unwound from an appropriate supply spool, threaded over the guide roll 36, through the guide channel G into an extended position beyond the attachment 10. As generally understood, the extended portion of the elastic 16 is engaged by and pulled through the attachment 10 by the feed dogs of the sewing machine 14. With the elastic 16 in the condition just described, proper use of the attachment l0 contemplates the positioning of the fabric 20 in a superposed position upon the elastic 16 such that the fabric edge 20a extends slightly beyond the attachment 10 through the elongated side opening We and the fabric main body 10b extends to the left of the attachment 10 through the opposite elongated opening 10d. This superposed position of the fabric 20 upon the elastic 16 is illustrated in the sectional view of FIG. 5.

Movement of the strip of elastic 16, caused by the sewing machine feed dogs, is effective to carry the fabric 20 through the helical turn HT of the attachment 10 into the condition illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7. As already noted, as a result of the helical turn HT, the positions of the elongated openings 10d and l0e are transposed one hundred eighty degrees so that the opening 10d originally located to the left, as viewed in FIG. 3, is transposed to the right side of the attachment l0 and the elongated opening 10a to the left side. During this transposition the hem fold 18a is formed in the fabric 20 firmly about the elastic edge 16a, all as is clearly indicated in FIG. 6. The described condition of the elastic l6 and fabric 20 is also illustrated in the sectional view of FIG. 7 in which it will be further noted that the opposite fabric edge 20a still extends beyond the elastic 16 through the elongated side opening 102.

However, continued movement of the elastic 16 and fabric 20 through the attachment l0, specifically from the position of movement of FIG. 6 to the position of movement of FIG. 8, of necessity brings the extending fabric edge 20a in contact with the previously noted triangular section edge 10g. Contact with the movement along the edge 10g results in the fabric edge 20a being folded over the elastic edge 16b and inwardly upon the elastic body 16. This completes the construction of the hem 18, as clearly shown in FIG. 9, and the elastic 16 encapsulated within the hem 18 is then carried by movement of the elastic l6 beneath the needles 12 which are effective to apply the seams 22 and 24 securing the elastic 16 in place and producing the end product illustrated in FIG. 10.

To facilitate the final application of the seams 22 and 24 use is advantageously made of an accessory holding attachment 48 appropriately secured, as at 50 and 52, to the work table 26. The attachment 48 includes body portions which define an open-ended rectangular passageway 48a through which the encapsulated elastic 16 is fed after the elastic and fabric are stripped from the attachment l0 and prior to the stitching thereof by the sewing machine 14.

A latitude of modification, change and substitution is intended in the foregoing disclosure and in some instances some features of the invention will be employed without a corresponding use of other features. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the spirit and scope of the invention herein.

Iclaim:

I. A sewing machine attachment for encapsulating an elongated material within a hem formed along the free edge of a sheet material comprising a pair of attachment body members and means mounting said body members in a clearance position with respect to each other so as to define an elongated guide channel therebetween, said body members having confronting edges along opposite sides thereof bounding elongated openings on opposite sides of said guide channel, said guide channel being adapted to accommodate both said elongated and sheet materials during movement of said materials through said channel with said edge of said sheet material extending outwardly of one of said elongated openings, said body members being of a convoluted shape such that the starting position of said elongated opening remote from said free edge is transposed substantially one hundred eighty degrees in the terminating position thereof and said other elongated opening adjacent said free edge of said sheet material in said starting position is transposed to an extent exceeding one hundred eighty degrees in said terminating position such that said sheet material is folded about both of the opposite edges of said elongated material after movement of said materials through said guide channel.

2. A sewing machine attachment as defined in claim 1 including a supply spool of said elongated material, means supporting said spool adjacent the entrance opening into said guide channel and guide roller means for feeding said elongated material from said supply spool into said entrance openmg.

3. A sewing machine attachment as defined in claim 2 including a second accessory attachment member defining a generally rectangular open-ended chamber located adjacent the exit opening of said guide channel in the feed path of movement of said materials and adapted to receive and hold said elongated material in its encapsulated condition within the hem of said sheet material during sewing operation of a sewing machine.

4. A sewing machine attachment for encapsulating an elongated material within a hem formed along the edge of a sheet material comprising first and second attachment body members each having a one hundred eighty degree helical turn and an operative clearance position with respect to each other so as to define an elongated convoluted guide channel therebetween, said body members having confronting edges along opposite sides thereof bounding first and second elongated openings on opposite sides of said convoluted guide channel adapted to accommodate said elongated and sheet materials during movement of said materials through said guide channel with said edge and a selected portion of said sheet material adjacent said edge extending outwardly of said first elongated opening, and a guide edge on one of said body members extending inwardly of said hem engaging said selected portion and guiding said selected portion inwardly of said hem between said elongated material and said sheet materials, whereby said elongated material is adapted to be folded in said sheet material during movement of said materials through said helical turn of said body members, and encapsulated in said sheet material during movement through said guide edge.

5. A sewing machine attachment as defined in claim 4 including a supply spool of said elongated material, means supporting said spool adjacent the entrance opening into said guide channel and guide roller means for feeding said elongated material from said supply spool into said entrance opening.

6. A sewing machine attachment as defined in claim 5 including a second accessory attachment member defining a generally rectangular open-end chamber located adjacent the exit opening of said guide channel in the feed path of movement of said materials and adapted to receive and hold said elongated material in its encapsulated condition within the hem of said sheet material during sewing operation of a sewing machine. 

